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User Guide
The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels.
Migrating
Before you migrate to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
Migrating WebSphere Commerce
The following section outlines the available migration paths for moving from WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0.
Migrating runtime environments (with staging servers)
The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your runtime instance from version 7.0 to version 8.0. These steps are specific to version 7.0 environments that are configured with a staging or authoring instance.
Migrating the production server
After you migrate your staging server, migrate the production server. The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your production server from version 7.0 to version 8.0.
Preparing WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 for migration
Prepare your version 7.0 production environment by backing up your WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 and database. Keep WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 production environment, including the database, available if anything goes wrong during the upcoming migration. The production database backup is restored to your version 8.0 production environment in the upcoming section of the migration.

User Guide
The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels.
- Planning
  Creating a custom implementation of a WebSphere Commerce store requires a significant amount of planning. From gathering client needs, to deploying the live solution, much work is needed to successfully deploy a custom client store. Use the resources in here to help you plan every phase of store creation.
- Installing
  Review the following sections for information about installing the WebSphere Commerce product, associated maintenance, and WebSphere Commerce enhancements.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
  - Planning to migrate WebSphere Commerce
    Most businesses treat investments in technology updates and migrations as overhead expenses. Even though you might need to upgrade or migrate to the latest WebSphere Commerce version to take advantage of the technological offering, providing a business justification to do so requires outlining the business benefits, strategy, and migration plan.
  - Migrating WebSphere Commerce Developer
    The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be completed to migrate your WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 Developer environment to WebSphere Commerce Developer Version 8.0. Migrating WebSphere Commerce Developer includes completing the following steps in order.
  - Migrating WebSphere Commerce
    The following section outlines the available migration paths for moving from WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0.
    - Migrating runtime environments (without staging servers)
      The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your runtime instance from version 7.0 to version 8.0. These steps are specific to version 7.0 environments that are not configured with a staging or authoring server.
    - Migrating runtime environments (with staging servers)
      The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your runtime instance from version 7.0 to version 8.0. These steps are specific to version 7.0 environments that are configured with a staging or authoring instance.
      - Migrating the staging server
        The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your staging server from version 7.0 to version 8.0. The sequence of these migration steps is specific to version 7.0 environments that are configured with a staging or authoring instance.
      - Migrating the production server
        After you migrate your staging server, migrate the production server. The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to migrate your production server from version 7.0 to version 8.0.
        Preparing WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 for migration
        Prepare your version 7.0 production environment by backing up your WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 and database. Keep WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 production environment, including the database, available if anything goes wrong during the upcoming migration. The production database backup is restored to your version 8.0 production environment in the upcoming section of the migration.
        Preparing WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0 for migration
        Before you began the migration process, you were asked to install WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0 and create an instance. Complete the following database-related tasks to prepare your version 8.0 environment for migration.
        Migrating the database
        You can migrate the database by using the Migration wizard or the command line.
        Deploying your migrated customizations to your production server
        Using either your version 8.0 development environment or your designated version 8.0 build server to deploy your customized assets to your version 8.0 production server.
        Migrating WebSphere Commerce Search
        You can migrate WebSphere Commerce Search from an earlier version to a later version, according to your site requirements.
        Migrating site security for WebSphere Commerce
        If you are migrating from WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0, manually migrate your security configurations.
        Migrating WebSphere Commerce XML configuration files
        You must prepare your wc-server.xml on your WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0 production environment for migration. Once the file is updated, run the configMigration utility to migrate the wc-server.xml and any remaining XML configuration files.
        Migrating remaining WebSphere Commerce functions
        After you migrate your database and deployed your customizations from version 7.0 to version 8.0, migrate any remaining WebSphere Commerce functions.
        Clustering WebSphere Commerce
        You can cluster your WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0 environment before you proceed further with the migration.
        Migrating the live version 7.0 database
        Migrate your live WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 database to version 8.0 with minimal downtime.
        Updating the SITE table on the migrated database
        After you complete the database migration, the SITE table will still contain version 7.0 values. As a final step to the migration, update the SITE table to contain the required version 8.0 values by using the updateSiteRT ANT task.
    - Converting a staging server into an authoring server
      The following section outlines the high-level steps that must be followed to convert a WebSphere Commerce version 8 staging server into a workspace-enabled authoring server.
- Deploying
  The topics in this section describe how to publish stores to either a test or production environment, and how to deploy customized code.
- Operating
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using WebSphere Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
- Tutorials
  WebSphere Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your WebSphere Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
- Developing
  The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage WebSphere Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of WebSphere Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
- Troubleshooting

WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0.1.0 or later

Preparing WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 for migration

Prepare your version 7.0 production environment by backing up your WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 and database. Keep WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 production environment, including the database, available if anything goes wrong during the upcoming migration. The production database backup is restored to your version 8.0 production environment in the upcoming section of the migration.

Procedure

Back up your WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 system according to your operating system documentation or any specialized backup and restore software that you are using.

Note: With this backup, you can recover your previous system if you encounter problems while you are migrating to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0.
Back up your database by using one of the following methods:
- Backup overview
- See the database vendor documentation.
  Note: When you restore the Oracle database, the character sets are automatically converted to AL32UTF8.